Walter joined Sep 29, 2013

Hello everyone! :) I like Mazes and Labyrinths. My Maze program "Daedalus" (see Daedalus Engine, or my homepage link) works with them in several ways, including as a platform for several games based on Mazes.

Setting "h" controls the health of all tributes, e.g. entering "h14" in the Ctrl+F8 "all settings" command will set all tributes to have 14 health. Similarly, setting "(" controls the health of all mutts separately from tributes. However, there's no setting in the UI to give Careers a different amount of health than other tributes.

This is however an easy change to make by editing the hunger.ds script file. Inside that file, search for the text "@HpMax @SMuttH". Replace that text with "Add @HpMax ?: Lt Char $ZAlly Div r @Per 48 4 0 @SMuttH" (minus the quotes), then save and restart the game. Tributes marked as Career will start with a bonus 4 health, or 14 total. (Change the "4" to whatever amount of bonus health you want. :)

It's much easier to change existing items than add new items. Adding new items can be done, although there's a bunch of things that need to be specified and updated, and there are a few hardcoded things to be aware of too. Start by editing every line in the "Tables (Objects)" section in hunger.ds, to give it a name/glyph/color/behavior/etc. Also at the start of the file increase JMax and a new JWhatever to identify your new item in the script. Depending on what you're adding, there may need to be special case code added to other places in the file to handle it. (Another weapon doesn't need anything, but a bear trap item would need custom messages and activation behavior and such.)

Note that adding launchers is tricky, because it's assumed that every launcher is stored 17 items after its ammo (see %JDif constant) which means adding a new ammo/launcher pair means having to insert in the right spots and moving displaced items to the end of the list. Unfortunately, there are some constants like the number of objects hardcoded in Daedalus.exe, which means editing daedalus.cpp in the same manners and recompiling. (If you don't do this, strange things will happen like AI won't notice or pick up things beyond the old size.) Also, note that there's a design limitation making it hard to exceed 32 items, because game settings a-e (for which items are active in which areas) are stored in 32 bit numbers, with one bit per item. With more than 32 items, some items can't be touched by these settings (at least not without a redesign of the interface for those settings).

What's the title of this other Hunger Games themed movie? Yes, features from other last-person-standing stories have been added to the Hunger Games Simulation. For example, there's the "start with a random item" setting inspired by Battle Royale, and a "everybody stays allied" setting to simulate Gladers vs. Grievers from The Maze Runner. Can you think of other variations that might be interesting to add as new settings to this game?

Just add "m24" to your arena settings string above. :) Setting "m" defines the total number of Mutts that can be in the arena at once. If you don't set this, then the number of Mutts can't exceed two, or the number of tributes per District. Other than that you've done everything right, in setting "_" to 1 to turn on "spawn mutts equal to number of dead tributes", along with setting "o" to indicate the turn to do this, and setting "n" to indicate all Mutts should be withheld at the start of the Games and therefore not spawned until "_" and "o" says so. Here's the documentation link: Astrolog.org

The new texture pictures are on by default, so if you run the latest version they should be present, without you having to press any keys. If you DON'T want the better textures, and want the old icons for items instead, then you can just delete the "hunger" folder in the Daedalus install directory that contains the files for them, and they'll automatically be gone the next time the game is played.

This was covered more on the "Hunger Games Simulation" page, but I'll answer here too. :) Yes, I've long been a fan of reality last-person-standing shows such as the TV series "Survivor", and have considered ways to make quality Survivor or Big Brother games. :) I see them as focusing on alliances, or a more advanced version of how "The Hunger Games Simulation" keeps track of them. They would track personality types, such as Person A values hard work and doing chores around camp/house, Person B is weak and dislikes people who are stronger than they are, Person C has a "anybody but me attitude" with respect to voting, Person D is looking for romance, and so on. Those personality types would affect how likely they are to ally, vote against somebody, and vote in the finals. You then do things around camp or in the house, or in challenges each day, to affect these ratings.

It's cool you use what's probably the most obscure command in the game: Viewing the alliance grid (via "~" key or "Ctrl+F10". :) That command is mainly useful when debugging the game or playing as the Audience, as a global view of who likes/dislikes who isn't something a tribute within the game would automatically know.

I assume you want something like instead of just shades of red, have red=enemy, yellow=neutral, green=ally or such? Internally, feelings are represented by a single number, in which different numeric thresholds are the different alliance categories. Simplicity of implementation is why it shows darker colors=friendlier and lighter colors=angrier. I agree a bit more effort in that command would make the grid easier to understand.

Yes, I've long been a fan of the TV series "Survivor"! :) Long before "The Hunger Games" came out, I was thinking of ways to make a quality Survivor video game. :) I see it as focusing on alliances, or a more advanced version of how "The Hunger Games Simulation" keeps track of them. Survivor should track personality types, such as Person A values hard work, Person B is weak and dislike people who are stronger than they are, Person C has a "anybody but me attitude", Person D is looking for romance, and so on. Those personality types would affect how likely they are to ally, vote against somebody, and vote as a juror. You then do things around camp and in challenges each day to affect these ratings.

Thank you for your long time and continued interest. :) 2015 was when version 3.1 of the game was released. The earliest release was version 2.4 in 2013, so the longest term players have been playing it for over four years now!

Version 3.2 was only released a few months ago, so the timing of the next update (as well as the set of features that will be in it) is unknown. What I can say is that there will be a next version, and as significant features are added, screenshots and such for them will be added here. :)

Ultimately getting sponsor gifts is random, in that some games you'll receive a bunch, and others very little if anything. The strategies described here are good ways to improve your chances of winning regardless of District:

Helmets and First-Aid Kits are great for increasing the survivability of any tribute. Getting many kills implies you already have decent gear, and is of course useful for getting more good things from sponsors. Not being reckless during the Cornucopia Bloodbath is recommended for all tributes, including Careers. If your District's favored weapon does 4+ damage, it's great if you can acquire and wield it. If you have enough control of the Cornucopia so you have time to Blowtorch the walls to make yourself additional Spears, you're already doing very well in the game. Similarly if you have control of the Cornucopia area enough so you have time to set up Landmines for defense or wait there to get first dibs on the Feast, then you're also doing well. :)

District 1 tributes do have a nice sponsor bonus, however it's not extreme. On average they get 33% more sponsor gifts than tributes from other Districts, e.g. if other tributes get 3 gifts during a week in the Games, D1 will get 4.

More specifically, a tribute will receive a sponsor gift on a turn with 1/1000 probability, except D1 who gets a gift with 1/750 probability. Each kill increases your probability by 1, so with 3 kills you get sponsored with 4/1000 or 4/750 probability. :)

Yes, I want to, along with snow which is very similar. :) There are various settings that come with such a feature, which would need to be (randomly) chosen or allowed to be user specifiable, such as strength of the precipitation, how long it's present for, how often it arrives, how gradual it appears and disappears, etc.

Yes, District 4 is one of the strongest Districts to play, so could be considered overpowered. It's a Career District (good alliance), easy swimming and fishing (good food), combined with specialized in Trident (best melee weapon), and specialized in Nets (also deadly). If the map has lots of water, and there are Tridents/Nets in the Cornucopia, then the D4 players certainly have an advantage. In that case, the strategy is to avoid them until they're weakened by other players, or give them stuff to improve your alliance with them so they'll attack others first.

However, D4 is specialized: In a desert map without those weapons in the Cornucopia, D4 is much weaker and worse than other Districts. In comparison, D1's sponsor gift bonuses are always good in any map, and D2's bonuses with rocks are present in all arenas too. Much of winning the Hunger Games Simulation is about understanding the strengths and dependencies of each District, and adjusting your tactics based on the arena and what happens in it. :)

You can toggle off the new photo textures by pressing the "_" key, which will return to the icons of previous versions. You can also edit the bitmaps (and sound files) in the "hunger" subdirectory of the Daedalus install directory, to replace the textures with your own choices. :)

To make dead tributes rise as mutts, press the ";" key to invoke the All Settings command, and change setting "-" to 1, i.e. enter "-1" (minus the quotes). The 14 settings new to version 3.2 are all indicated by special characters, and are documented at Astrolog.org

For a good zombie apocalypse scenario, try this: Press ";" to bring up the All Settings command, then enter "D1Y100m125n100!1@1-1=1+1" (minus the quotes) and start a new game. There will be 100 people together in a camp, and 25 mutts to get things started. Try to survive as long as you can, because the number of mutts will rapidly balloon out of control once the camp gets infected! ;)

There are a few game variables that aren't exposed in the UI, and can be changed in the Daedalus console. The article at Indiedb.com lists some of them, such as changing the color of the Cornucopia. Near the top of the hunger.ds file is a "Custom variables (internal)" comment, followed by various internal settings. Numbers 153-156 are four additional settings that can be changed. For example, enter "@SAid 5" in the console and First-Aid Kits will heal 5 health each.

Yeah, version 2.4, 2.5, 3.0, 3.1, and now 3.2 makes for five releases of the Hunger Games Simulation so far! :) To get an idea of what the game used to be like, you can play a version 2.4 "retro" arena, by doing Shift+F2 and entering "4" for the arena type. (Be sure to turn off sound and textures too. :)

Everybody having a random item is the main setting turned on in the "battle royale" arena. (Press Shift+F2 and enter "B" to play it.) That arena also has the setting to not have an open area in the center, so there can be trees growing in the middle of the Cornucopia.

You can indeed get rid of the Cornucopia completely with a Daedalus console command, as described in the article at Indiedb.com - Just make all Cornucopia characters in the string be "-", which means they're empty (no wall or item).

Did you accidentally change the new "mutt height" setting? That's character ")" in the ";" key "all settings" command. If you enter ")0" then Mutts will be 0 inches tall, and look the way they are in your screenshot. Very short Mutts can make for interesting gameplay, since they're more hidden and can sneak up on you! :)

The default value for setting "^" is 10, which means computer tributes avoid traps 90% of the time. If you make it 0, then computer tributes never see traps at all, and are as dumb as Mutts with respect to them.

The Cornucopia light (setting "$") was actually in 3.1, but an undocumented setting, and always off so it wasn't very visible. You could change it in the Daedalus console by pressing Enter and entering something like "@SCorn 3". But yes, I agree it makes playing at night a little less disorienting. It makes the Cornucopia and/or launch platforms show up through the new fog setting too. :)

Cool that you're such a long time user of Daedalus! :) You should appreciate the new version 3.2 that's just been released, which is described at Astrolog.org - You can now create and explore Mazes with over 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 cells, instead of "only" 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 cells. ;)

There should be more versions in the future! :) The Hunger Games Simulation is a script that comes with Daedalus, and I've been doing Daedalus releases since 2001, and the first Hunger Games version for it was in 2013. Even if I don't add any more major features, there will at least be bug fixes and maintenance to the Hunger Games in future Daedalus releases.

To make dead tributes rise as mutts, change setting "-" to 1 in the ";" key all settings command, i.e. enter "-1" (minus the quotes). The 14 settings new to version 3.2 are all indicated by special characters, and are documented at Astrolog.org - For a good zombie apocalypse scenario, it's best to turn on a few other settings, such as allow there to be enough mutts, and have tributes cooperate and not fight each other.

Try this: Press ";" to bring up the all settings command, then enter "D1Y100m150n100!1@1-1=1+1" (minus the quotes) and start a new game. There will be 100 people together in a camp, and a few mutts to get things started. Try to survive as long as you can, because the number of mutts will rapidly balloon out of control once the camp gets infected! :)

Indeed, Dwarf Fortress is a "Roguelike" game (which means it's based on the classic game "Rogue") with its turn based text grid environment. The Hunger Games Simulation is Roguelike too (just displayed in 1st person graphics) since it's also turn based on a grid.

The screenshot above shows detailed damage to specific areas. Applied to the Hunger Games Simulation, instead of just a single health number, tributes could have damage to specific areas. For example, a hit to the leg (like Peeta received from Cato in the first book) makes you move slower, a hit to the arm makes you do less damage or able to carry less, etc. Features like that need to be considered and implemented properly, so an injured character is still fun to play.

Here's a few features that haven't been mentioned, or at least haven't been mentioned for a long while:

1: New command to redisplay the most recent messages. Never miss an alert that scrolled off the top of the screen again!
2: Currently you automatically accept all alliance proposals. New setting allows you to automatically reject all proposals, or pop up a message box asking you whether to accept each one. There's also an "end alliance" ability to terminate an alliance without having to attack and anger them.
3: Set default Mutt health and default Mutt height. Make giant supermutts so tributes actually run from them! Also, you can set it so Mutts can swim and climb trees, so you can't easily escape them.
4: Zombie apocalypse mode! Dead tributes automatically rise as new mutts. :)
5: There's a subtle setting that makes it so when Mutts are released, it's equal to the number of dead tributes. That allows reproducing the 74th HG most accurately.

Hee hee, that's the problem with attempting to give release dates before something's actually released: The dates are often not accurate! ;) Indeed, I should stop posting screenshots and finish up the new version. I expect it will take another month to actually get it uploaded. Work, travel, and needed Daedalus engine infrastructure updates to display the new textures appropriately have required time.